I had someone I sold a hive to discover the queen went missing. They acknowledged it was there but upon the second check no queen, eggs, or open larva to be found. They had attended a queen rearing class over the weekend and was informed they had 45 days before it would become a laying worker hive. I got to thinking, I don't think I ever heard anyone mention a time frame. So what's the rule of thumb for a hive that's gone queenless on how many days before laying workers kick in?
I am going to loan them a nuc with a few frames and a queen and tell them to look for eggs in a couple of weeks. If they find them they can give me the nuc back. If not they can do a newspaper combine and then return the equipment.
>and was informed they had 45 days before it would become a laying worker hive.
It's not queenlessness. It's broodlessness. So a package of bees with no brood might be a laying worker hive in three weeks. I have that had open brood and eggs when the queen disappeared might last another 9 days. I would be very surprised if a broodless hive didn't have laying workers in four weeks. But one with eggs at the time it went queenless would likely last that long without laying workers because they have another 9 days before the brood is all capped...
http://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm